‘Snake and Ladders’ vs ‘Subway Surfers’
Nearly all of us have played ‘Snake and Ladders’. ‘Snake and Ladders’ epitomises the ups and downs of life. The game tells that life is not linear. As children we enjoyed playing the game. As adults its great fun to play this game with children.
Many of us may have played ‘Subway Surfers’. Many others would have seen people playing ‘Subway Surfers’. Its a mobile game where a person has to run endlessly collecting coins and other power ups. The person has to save himself or herself from trains and other obstacles. It was the most downloaded game in the world (iOS and Android combined) in 2015 according to analytics firm ‘App Annie’.
‘Snake and Ladders’ is a worldwide classic. As per Wikipedia it was invented in India and later on became a worldwide hit. ‘Subway Surfers’ on the other hand is one of the most successful mobile games ever. Why am I comparing both?
I am into mobile game development for last many years and have just recently began playing ‘Snake and Ladders’ with my nearly 6 year old son. Ever since I played ‘Super Mario’, I have been fascinated by digital games. Over the years I have played many games and would rate ‘Subway Surfer’ as one of the best ones. Even my son likes it very much!
Old world board games have nothing in comparison to the spectacular sounds and graphics of the mobile games. I used to feel that old world games have been relegated to the past till I re-started playing ‘Snake and Ladders’.
Old world games have something great about them. No amount of graphics, audio effects or technological glitz and glamour can make them history. Old world games are slow in pace and soothing on the mind. They are social in nature. You need to play them with the family. They increase family bonding. They offer opportunities for children to bond with parents. They are also closer to reality. They summarise life in a uniquely entertaining way.
They offer opportunities for children to learn things like Maths. I have used ‘Snake and Ladders’ to teach addition to my son. As an entrepreneur building m-learning and e-learning content, I always wanted to find the right mix of education and entertainment. Somehow most digital games lacked the correct mix of both. Even my own games could not mix the magical ingredients right.
Classic board games are very good at teaching different subjects to children. Take the case of ‘Monopoly’. It is a good exercise in addition, subtraction, geography, entrepreneurship etc. Similarly ‘Scrabble’ teaches both language skills and addition. Classical games are the best examples of ‘edutainment’.
Digital games like ‘Subway Surfers’ do teach a little bit of geography or similar stuff but they generally lack education related stuff. As a ‘toddler’ child may get some learning due to involvement of gestures and visual inputs but digital games tax eyes a lot. The fast and furious nature of digital games is bad for eyes. At the end of the day, digital games provide fun and entertainment but at the cost of eyes. I like Candy Crush’s 5 chance rule. After 5 chances you have to wait for 30 minutes for each chance. This way you cannot stress your eyes beyond a point!
Dedicated e-learning and m-learning content is boring. The child inside me feels bored by such content. My son also feels the same way many times. Children generally do not like digital education games the same way as they like digital entertainment games. What makes parents happy does not make children happy!
So offline stuff is still relevant. From evolutionary perspective, the learning provided by games is unmatchable by other means. As a digital game maker I am learning from these classic old world games. Automation may be a good thing in real life but at least in gaming I am finding that manual stuff makes my son learn more. It also gives more social pleasure. Every time he adds incorrectly on the board while moving his piece, I share knowledge and every time he adds correctly I get fun!
